WATCH: 16 Days of Activism: Moroccan TV airs makeup tutorial to hide domestic abuse scars & bruises
As the 16 Days of Activism campaign reaches its halfway mark, a Moroccan state TV network has been labelled a "disgrace" - after airing a tutorial on how women can cover-up signs of domestic violence with makeup.
The segment aired on a daily morning programme on Channel 2M in late November, and showed a smiling makeup artist demonstrating how to mask injuries inflicted by a beating - on a woman whose face had been made up with fake bruises.
“We hope these beauty tips will help you carry on with your daily life”, the host says at the end of the segment, which aired on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (November 25).
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Other tips she suggests include: "Make sure to use loose powder to fix the makeup, so if you have to work throughout the day, the bruises don’t show." Also: “Use foundation with yellow in it. If you use the white one, your red punch marks will always show.”
She also cheerfully recommended the best beauty brands for heavy coverage foundations and concealers.
In response to the international backlash received, Lilia Mouline, the makeup artist featured in the clip, was quoted in Morocco World News as saying: “In no way are we endorsing [domestic violence]. We are here to provide solutions to these women who, for a period of two to three weeks, are putting their social life aside while their wounds heal."
She added that makeup 'allows women to continue to live their lives normally, while waiting for justice.'
But social media users who watched the video clip have not bought into the idea.
Some have accused the network of "brainwashing" women to believe that violence was a normal and acceptable part of a relationship, and that the right thing to do was to conceal it - rather than report it.
Instead of giving women makeup tips to hide evidence of #domesticabuse, please teach men how not to abuse women #Morocco #VAW https://t.co/GOjwysig7Y
— Tariqa F. Tandon (@tariqaftandon) November 28, 2016
#hnnwomen Shame on #morroco television teaching battered women how to HIDE #domesticviolence… https://t.co/3FDksNVEgf
— KEMI 😇 OLUNLOYO 🗽 (@HNNAfrica) November 29, 2016
Host spends more time talking about the best brand of makeup to cover domestic violence bruises than the actual issue of domestic violence pic.twitter.com/JUpNyqZ4dY
— Samia Errazzouki (@S_Errazzouki) November 25, 2016
Shocked!! #Moroccan lifestyle-show aired makeup tutorials to victims, women, on how to cover up domestic violence!
— Dima Sarsour ديمة (@YasminWaQahwa) November 27, 2016
Sue them, fire director! https://t.co/Q9HfysMsyq
Thousands of people have now signed an online petition on Change.org, accusing the channel of normalizing violence.
The petition said the "standardisation of violence against women" must be denounced, and demanded an apology and sanctions against the station. It further asks women to ensure that violence should not be covered by makeup, and that aggressors must be condemned.
2M issued this statement in response to the backlash - citing an "editorial error of judgment":